1(52 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



advocating abolition or formation of slums ? Have 

 tlie District Visitors created them ? Did the Act 

 of 1870 bring them into existence ? Did the 

 OHgarchy of England prior to 1830 or its Democracy . 

 subsequently call them into being ? Is it the 

 Republican Government of France, the Autocratic 

 one of Germany, or the Oriental Despotism of the 

 East that have made them in these respective 

 countries ? Or, finally, has it been the growing 

 ethical codes of civilisation that has planted the 

 slums — a disfigurement and a waste — in its beautiful 

 and verdant valley ? When a benevolent friend of 

 mine, a Managing Director of a large works, situated 

 three miles beyond a great city, built near them, 

 for the ease and convenience of the workers and their 

 families, a row of nicely arranged and well-equipped 

 cottages, with gardens and bathrooms, and he found 

 the workmen w^ould not use them, but preferred to 

 pay a daily train fare and a heavier rent, in order 

 that they might live in the slums of the city, will my 

 critic tell me who made these slums ? Or, when as 

 in the South Wales colliery districts, the houses of the 

 colliers contain a bathroom, and the baths are turned 

 into coal-cellars and dust bins, surely w^e are entitled 

 to ask of Miss Wodehouse, if these are the people, 

 who if " temperately trained may keep the love of 

 beautiful and pleasant things as a deep rich undertone 

 to their lives, making them delightful to themselves 

 and to all around them," Would Miss Wodehouse 

 care to undertake the " temperate training " of these 

 people ? I urge, with all humility, that if she really 



